Town Board Spotlights Importance of Bone Marrow Donations

Huntington Supervisor Frank P. Petrone and the Town Board spotlighted the importance of bone marrow donations at the June 13, 2017 board meeting, issuing proclamations to an organization that operates the world’s largest registry of potential bone marrow donors and to two youths who were donors for their siblings.

Be The Match, a non-profit group operated by the National Marrow Donor Program, is dedicated to helping patients in need of a life-saving marrow or cord blood transplant. In a blood marrow transplant, a donor’s healthy blood-forming cells are transplanted into a patient’s bloodstream, where they begin to grow and make healthy red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.

The organization operates the national Be The Match Registry, which matches patients with their marrow donor, educates health care professionals and conducts research to help people with life-threatening blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma and aplastic anemia. It is operated by the National Marrow Donor Program; the research is spearheaded by program’s Center for International Blood and Transplant Research.

Following presentation of the proclamation to Be the Match representative Jacqueline Poarch, Supervisor Petrone called up “two special young people who take community and family very seriously. They have been heroes, they are heroes and they are donors.”

Aidan Cuthbertson recently provided bone marrow to his older brother, Hunter, who was suffering from aplastic anemia, a rare and serious condition that occurs when the body stops producing enough new blood cells. Aidan and Hunter’s father is Councilman Mark Cuthbertson.

Alex Briggs provided bone marrow for his older sister, Emily, who suffered from aplastic anemia when she received her transplant four years ago. Emily accompanied her brother to the presentation.

The proclamations noted, “By recognizing these heroic acts of kindness and courageousness, we acknowledge the need for all citizens to become aware of the importance of donating blood cells and bone marrow to those in need, helping to make our world a kinder and healthier place to live.”